Step 5) Enable access restriction for virtual rooms, recordings and other event information

It could be that you do not want everyone to be able to access your virtual rooms. This could be restricted to those who registered virtually (hybrid events) or paying attendees only; find more use cases below.

Our platform allows you to restrict the virtual rooms or on-demand recordings to a specific group. 

1) Create groups of attendees

First, if you haven't done it yet, you will need to create groups for your attendees. To do that, check this article.

2) Restrict access

Once you have created groups for your attendees, go to Pages & Layout > Data structures. Click on the data type you would like to restrict access to:

1. Virtual room can be accessed by: here you can select which attendees will be allowed to click on the "enter virtual room" and the "view recordings" buttons on the detail page. Choose an option from the drop-down menu - these correspond to the groups you previously created.
   External virtual rooms can also be restricted to signed-in users only. This way you can make your event public, whilst restricting your virtual rooms. 
2. Tab can be accessed by: here you can select which attendees can see each of the tabs. You can also rename the tab if you like. The tabs display the following information:

• Info: contains the description of the item, and the persons/sponsors/classifiers linked to it.
• Schedule: contains the programme items linked to the item.
• Resources: contains the PDFs, websites or other links linked to the item.
• Interactive: contains the interactive features that are set for the item (vote/ask/chat).

Specific use cases & advice

Here are some of the most common use cases for restricting access to the virtual room and/or tabs, and how to enable the restriction.

🎟️ You sell different tiers of tickets for your event, for example by day or by member type.

In this case, you will naturally want to restrict access to a programme item to only those attendees that have purchased the corresponding ticket.

1. In order to enable the restriction, the first step is to create attendee groups that reflect your ticket structure (for example Attendees day 1, Attendees day 2). Check this article for how to create groups.
2. The next step is to ensure that the data structure follows the ticket structure, too. Go to Pages & Layout > Data structures. Under Program items, create as many types of sessions as different tickets you have, and for each of them restrict the access to the corresponding group of attendees:
   - Click the + under Program items to add a new type;
   - Name: for example Session - day 1, Session - day 2
   - Advanced settings - Virtual room can be accessed by: selecting which attendees will be allowed to click on the "enter virtual room" and the "view recordings" buttons on all sessions of this data type. Choose the relevant option from the drop-down menu - these correspond to the groups you previously created. 
   - Advanced settings - Tab can be accessed by: here you can select which attendees can see each of the tabs. You can also rename the tab if you like.
   - Advanced settings - Default session banner (optional): here you can upload a banner image, which will appear at the top of the detail page for each session of this data type.
   - Info: choose whether you want the info text of the session to be visible in the App or not, whether the info text should be viewable as a button or preview, and give a title to it. Optionally, you can add an icon to it.
   - Sections: here, add the data types that your session should be linked to. Most likely, you will want to include at least the Speakers (roles), the Presentations (children) and classifiers such as Topics (related). If the V1 of your App was delivered with a generic data type called Session, we recommend that you include the exact same sections as that one.
3. The last step is to apply the new structure to your programme so that the restriction becomes effective.
   

   - Go to Data > Program items, and filter by Sessions.
   - Select all the sessions belonging to your first ticket type (for example, all sessions of Day 1)
   - Click Edit selected and, under Type, select the first ticket type, which you created in step 2 (for example "Session - day 1").
   - Repeat for the other ticket types.

🌐 Your event is hybrid - you have both onsite and online attendees

In this case, you might want to restrict access to the virtual rooms to only those attendees that have registered for online (remote) attendance. With that, you maximise the engagement of your event by ensuring onsite attendees go to the event physically and don't connect from their hotel rooms. 

In order to do that, follow these simple steps:

1. The first step is to create attendee groups that reflect the two types of attendees. For example Onsite attendees, Online attendees. Check this article for how to create groups.
2. Go to Pages & Layout > Data structures. Under Program items, click on the item Sessions and open the Advanced Settings.
3. Advanced settings - Virtual room can be accessed by: selecting which attendees will be allowed to click on the "enter virtual room" and the "view recordings" buttons on all sessions of this data type. Choose the Online attendees group. Save.

🔓 Your event app is public, but it contains valuable attendee-only information

In this case, you might want to restrict that information to only paying attendees. Whether it is abstracts, poster PDFs, presentation videos, and of course the virtual rooms if your event is virtual.

In order to do that, follow these simple steps:

1. The first step is to create an attendee group that includes all paying attendees. Check this article for how to create groups.
2. Go to Pages & Layout > Data structures. Under Program items, click on the data type which contains the information you want to restrict (most likely session, presentation or poster) and open the Advanced Settings.
3. Advanced settings - Virtual room can be accessed by: selecting which attendees will be allowed to click on the "enter virtual room" and the "view recordings" buttons on all sessions of this data type. If your event is virtual, choose the paying attendees group.